Chapter 1
I sighed, staring at Grand Springs High’s beige bricks and immaculate grass with perfect edge trimming. It looked like a regular school on the outside, but to me, it was a cement prison. This was supposed to be my stellar senior year, getting ready for cheerleading with my friends, but all that changed almost seven months ago when our father passed away. Things I loved doing didn’t spark my interest anymore. I think that was part of the reason Mom moved us out here. Now, I’m starting my senior year with a bunch of strangers. Sure, I would probably make a friend or two, but I wasn’t going to get caught up in any unnecessary drama.
“Come on, Tabitha. Stop moping,” Evie said, opening the back passenger door to Mom’s SUV. “We’ve got to go to the office.” She closed the door.
Moping? Did she just say moping? My brow furrowed, glancing over my shoulder at her.
“Are you going to the new coffee place after school?” Mom asked, smiling, trying to cheer me up.
I blinked, snapping myself out of my daydream. “Uh...Yeah. I’m sure Evie will go with me. We’ll see you later today.” I turned and opened the passenger door. “Love you, Mom.” I glanced back, smiling, hoping it would ease her troubled mind. She had enough to worry about; I didn’t want her worrying about us trying to adapt to a new school. Well, more me than Evie.
“Are we going for coffee later?” Evie asked as we waved to Mom.
“Yes.” I turned, and my body slammed into something hard. I fumbled my phone in my hands, trying not to drop it.
“Why don’t you watch where you’re walking?” A low voice mumbled, walking away.
I glanced up and saw a guy with dark brown hair walking away. A few guys walked up beside him, and they entered the school together. One had dark blonde hair and tall, lean muscles like the one with dark brown hair. The other guy had light brown hair and was built close to the other two.
“They’re hot,” Evie whispered, tucking a piece of long, light brown hair behind her ear.
“You have to overlook them.” An unfamiliar soft voice said, walking up beside us.
My head turned to the right as a girl with long raven hair and caramel skin walked up. “Sorry...”
“They are assholes.” She flipped her long hair over her shoulder. “My name’s Sophie. Sophie Ellis. You must be new here?” She smiled.
“Yeah...Sorry. I’m Tabitha Bennett, and this is my sister, Evelyn.”
“Evie.” Evie chimed in, curling her upper lip. She hated being called Evelyn.
“Are you two headed to the office?” Sophie asked, grasping her bookbag handles. “I can show you the way.”
“Thanks. That would be great. So, who were those guys?” I pointed toward the school, even though they were not anywhere around.
“The guy in the middle was Blake Devlin. He moved here about six months ago. The way he acts, you’d think he owned the school or something.” She rolled her eyes. The other two were his friends Asher Hobbs and Elias Steele. Wonder where Hunter was at?” Sophie twisted her mouth, paused, and turned around, perusing the parking lot behind us. “He must be inside already or something.” She shrugged.
“Hunter?” My eyes narrowed.
“Oh, sorry. Hunter Prescott, he’s the other asshole in the group. He’s not as bad as the others. And so hot.” She smiled, closing her eyes. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Sophie had a crush on Hunter. “Come on, we need to get going to the office.” Sophie grabbed the door, letting Evie and me walk in with her following behind us. “Do you know what classes you have?”
“I have History first thing this morning,” I said, grabbing my schedule from my book bag.
“Who’s it with?” Sophie asked, pausing right outside the glass windows that looked into a sitting area with a couple of counters and ladies sitting behind them.
“Um...Mr. Austin.” I unfolded the white piece of paper in my hand.
“I can show you where it’s at. That’s my first class, too.” She beamed, opening up the office door. I walked in behind her, gazing around the room at the beige carpet, the white top counters, and a round table in the corner with about three chairs around it. “Ms. Curry, we need some late slips for class,” Sophie said to the dark-haired lady sitting behind the counter. To the right of us was a shorter white top counter, a lady with blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail sitting behind it. Past the taller white counter was a long eggshell-colored hallway lined with offices on each side.
“Why aren’t you headed to class?” Ms. Curry stood up and walked to the counter.
“This is their first day.” Sophie motioned to us.
“You must be Tabitha and Evie.” Her demeanor changed in a split second.
“Yes,” I answered for us.
“Here are your passes. Don’t be super late.” She turned and walked back to her desk.
We turned the corner, and my heart started pounding in my ears. I just wanted to run out of the school, jump in a vehicle, and drive back to California to my old school.
“Come on before Mr. Austin closes the door.” Sophie motioned me toward the doorway. “Sorry, Mr. Austin, I was showing Tabitha to her locker and talking to her about her classes.” Sophie handed him our two pink passes. Mr. Austin had dark blond hair and looked younger than the teachers I was used to at my old school.
“Welcome to the class, Tabitha. You’re in luck; there’s a seat next to Sophie.” He held up his hand, motioning to the rows of desks. I nodded and walked to the empty desk next to Sophie in the middle of the room. Before I turned and sat down, my eyes found their way to Blake, sitting in the back of the room, glancing down at his phone. Before I could turn away, he glanced up; his piercing blue eyes held my gaze for what seemed to be an eternity.
“Tabitha. Tabitha...” Sophie whispered.
My eyes flashed to Sophie’s wide-eyed stare as she motioned her head to my seat. I turned, bumping into the leg of the chair, and halfway fell into my seat. I lowered my head, letting my hair fall around my face to hide my blushing cheeks. I grabbed my notebook and mechanical pencil, trying not to make eye contact with anyone after my failed attempt at being graceful.
Even though I could feel eyes on me throughout the class, I kept my eyes forward on the board and Mr. Austin while he talked about the Civil War. Even though I had just heard about this less than a year ago, I pretended to act engaged. I had learned from my teachers at my other school they seemed to call on the ones that didn’t pay attention more than the ones that did. So, even though my mind was preoccupied with the gorgeous guy in the back of the room, I didn’t let it show.
And when I didn’t think I could hold it together any longer, the bell rang, and I sighed in relief that I’d survived my first class. My shoulders dropped when I realized I still had seven hours to go. Blake glanced down at me briefly, but it was long enough that I could see what appeared to be anger in his eyes. He was out of the classroom within a few minutes.
“Yeah...He does that,” Sophie said, sliding out of her seat.
“Does what?” I tried acting like I hadn’t noticed what she was saying.
“Look at you like he wants to rip your head off for no reason.” She grabbed her books, waving me to follow her. “What’s your next class again?” She held out her hand.
I looked at her hand; then it hit me. She was waiting for me to hand her my schedule. “Sorry.” I handed her my schedule. “I think I have Math.” I tried to memorize my schedule earlier when we were walking to History. I was pretty sure by the end of the week, I wouldn’t have any trouble finding my classes. She told me I was in luck and that Math class was a few doors down from my locker on the left side of the hall. Sophie told me she’d meet me at my locker after class to show me how to get to English. I just wanted this day to be over so I could go to that cute coffee place and sit there and pretend I was back home at my regular coffee place, Sweet Espresso. Sweet Espresso was where my friend and I would go after school for our coffee fix and get some work done while drooling over the hot guys who would come in to get their drinks to go. That’s how I met my boyfriend Kyle, and that’s how he met the girl he dumped me for, Shari—nothing like having your boyfriend dump you a month after losing your father.
“Tabitha, did you hear me?” Sophie tapped me on the shoulder.
“I zoned out, didn’t I?” I lowered my head. “Sorry. I have a tendency of doing that here lately.” I peeked through my lashes to find concern instead of annoyance or anger.
“It’s okay. I kinda heard why you moved here. I couldn’t imagine.” She wrapped her arm around me, giving me a little side hug. “Sorry, I’m a hugger.” She quickly retreated when I tensed up.
“No, it’s okay. I’ve been hugged a lot over the past six months, to the point I’m tired of people hugging me. If that makes any sense.” My eyes narrowed, hoping she wouldn’t be offended.
“No hugs. For now.” She smiled. “Your Math class is a few doors down from your locker on the left side of the hall. You can’t miss it. Ms. Inman’s door is decorated with equations.” Sophie rolled her eyes, halfway laughing. “I’ve got to get going. I’ll see you after class to show you where your next class is. Everything’s going to be okay.” Sophie’s full lips turned into a thin, curled line as she turned and hurried down the hall, her raven hair bouncing with each step.
I turned and recited the numbers as I spun the dial to my locker, praying it would open. I swapped out my books, took a deep breath, then turned and headed down the hall to Math class. I reached Math and giggled when I saw the door covered in block numbers situated in equations minus the answers. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, clutched my books tighter to my chest, and stepped inside the room, opening my eyes. I glanced around the room, trying to see if I’d recognized anyone from History class. Much to my expectation, I didn’t recognize anyone, and that’s when my eyes locked with a familiar pair of grey eyes, except I couldn’t remember where I’d seen them before.
“You must be Tabitha Bennett,” a young blonde-haired woman said, walking to the teacher’s desk in the corner. “I’m Ms. Inman. I know a lot of what we’re going over you’ve already had, so hopefully, it won’t bore you too much.” She set down a clear plastic cup with the words Golden Java printed on it. “My addiction right here.” She pointed to her plastic cup. “You can have a seat on the left side of the room.” She pointed to the empty desk by the wall while she walked to the whiteboard, grabbing a dry-erase marker. She told everyone to get out their paper and pencils while checking her bun with her free hand.
“How did it go?” Sophie asked, walking up to my locker. I shrugged my shoulders and reached for a book. “Your next class is English, right?” She moved round to the corner of my locker.
“Yeah.” I nodded, leaning back to see the guy with the grey eyes walk past, halfway curling his lip in disgust.
“Don’t mind him. He’s an ass!” Sophie shouted, turning her head in his direction. “That was Elias Steele. He’s one of Blake’s friends. The rude one.” She rolled her eyes, turning toward me. “Not all of them are as rude as him and Blake—enough about them. Let’s get you to class. What do you have after English?”
“Oh...I have lunch.” I pulled the schedule out of my notebook, scanning down the remainder of my classes for the day. “Lunch, then Biology.”
“Sweet! I have Biology after lunch. Don’t worry; you can sit with my friend and me at lunch.” She beamed. I couldn’t help but smile in return, knowing I had more than likely made my first friend here in Grand Springs. We turned the corner and went to the right side of the hall, which was less crowded, so we didn’t have to knock kids over to get through. “English 110.” She held her hand up to the doorway. “I’ll meet you at your locker after class.”
“Ok...” My body stumbled forward a couple of steps. “Hey, watch where you’re going!” I yelled, straightening myself up.
“Did you say something?” Blake turned around, stepping closer to me.
“Yeah...” My mouth fell open when I was met by the most piercing blue eyes I’d ever seen. I blinked, and my anger was back in full force. “You could say excuse me instead of plowing people over.” I pressed my finger into his chest. “Just so you know. I’m not scared of you.” I pressed my finger harder into his chest.
“Not scared of me? You should be.” He warned in a low voice, leaning closer.
My eyebrows raised. “Really? Well, I’m not.” I put my phone down in my book bag, not giving him a second glance as I turned and walked into the classroom.
